Puerto Rico is broken
Posted: 02 October 2017, 15:40
I'm talking about the game, itself... not the BGA rendering of the game, which is perfectly faithful, as far as I can tell.
I'm whining, in particular, about the four player "Balanced" version, which I believe is otherwise the best way to play the game.
The situation is almost hopeless for the player in the second chair if the opening row of plantations does not contain a selectable corn. Any experienced first chair will choose Settler -> Quarry and doom the second player. Is "doomed" an exaggeration? I don't think so, not with other good players.... I'm qualified to know because I've played Puerto Rico hundreds and hundreds of times here, and have tried almost every opening imaginable, and the chance of winning against good players is near zero.
The plight is insidious, actually. During play you feel that you're doing everything well... making all the correct choices.... but the sad fact of the matter is that you'll always be working from behind.
Builder -> Small Market as your first move, for example? Sounds like a reasonable choice, given that Small Market is the best buy on the board. But it's certain suicide because it's going to be a long time before you have produced anything to trade.
After many, many games I have decided that Builder -> Construction Hut is the best opening move to avoid ending in last place, but in real life games outside of Boardgamearena I'm going to be insisting on one of two setup fixes for balance: either require that at least one corn is part of the opening row of selectable plantations, or give second player an extra doubloon. As far as the BGA model is concerned, I wish that the opening row of plantations can be a drafting option at setup.
By the way, I just came in last place again, this time with Construction Hut as my opening move. Like I said, I've tried everything.
I'm whining, in particular, about the four player "Balanced" version, which I believe is otherwise the best way to play the game.
The situation is almost hopeless for the player in the second chair if the opening row of plantations does not contain a selectable corn. Any experienced first chair will choose Settler -> Quarry and doom the second player. Is "doomed" an exaggeration? I don't think so, not with other good players.... I'm qualified to know because I've played Puerto Rico hundreds and hundreds of times here, and have tried almost every opening imaginable, and the chance of winning against good players is near zero.
The plight is insidious, actually. During play you feel that you're doing everything well... making all the correct choices.... but the sad fact of the matter is that you'll always be working from behind.
Builder -> Small Market as your first move, for example? Sounds like a reasonable choice, given that Small Market is the best buy on the board. But it's certain suicide because it's going to be a long time before you have produced anything to trade.
After many, many games I have decided that Builder -> Construction Hut is the best opening move to avoid ending in last place, but in real life games outside of Boardgamearena I'm going to be insisting on one of two setup fixes for balance: either require that at least one corn is part of the opening row of selectable plantations, or give second player an extra doubloon. As far as the BGA model is concerned, I wish that the opening row of plantations can be a drafting option at setup.
By the way, I just came in last place again, this time with Construction Hut as my opening move. Like I said, I've tried everything.